


A Day in the Park

by indestructress



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: F/M friendship, Friendship, Gen, queliot mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-10 15:54:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19908298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indestructress/pseuds/indestructress
Summary: Julia takes a mopey Quentin to Universal Studios.





	A Day in the Park

**Author's Note:**

> Post Season 3 where Alice doesn't destroy the keys, the gang turns magic on before the library shows up, and Julia stays a goddess, eventually ditching Iris to return to her friends. This started as pure fluff and got a little angsty.

“I’ve decided to rule out Slytherin.” Quentin announced, satisfied that he was making progress. 

“Definitely not you.” Julia agreed. 

“What were the pros for Ravenclaw again?”

“Jesus, Q. Just get the Gryffindor one.” Julia grabs the Gryffindor robes and thrusts them at Quentin. “We both know that’s what you want.” Julia was tired of debating which house traits most accurately described her best friend. She enjoyed a good nerd out, but this idiot’s been standing in the shop for 30 minutes unable to make a decision. Quentin had taken the Pottermore quiz, more than once, to find out what his house was. And yes, he did want to be a Gryffindor. They were the heroes of the story, but recently he hadn’t felt like that was him. 

Julia watched Quentin turn the robes in his hands. Running his finger over the embroidered lion. She recognized the look on his face and was saddened to see it again. The key quest had brought out a confidence in him she had never seen before, but it was gone now. _When did all that insecurity creep back in?_ She wondered. “Hey,” She reached out and touched his arm. “Who faced off a dragon?” 

Quentin rolled his eyes “Jules.” 

“Who saved Fillory from being destroyed by Ember?” 

“Technically, all of us.”

“Who did Jane Chatwin choose time and time again to stop the beast?” 

“Me.” Quentin said quietly. “She only chose me because I kept coming back, no matter how many times I died.” 

“You’ve defeated dragons, killed monsters with magic swords, and continued trying to save the day even when you know it’s impossible.” 

Quentin looked up at her. He knew what she was doing, he’s too familiar with the Julia Wicker pep talk. That didn’t make her words any less true. 

“Sounds pretty Gryffindor to me.” Julia finished, crossing her arms, daring Quentin to defy her. 

“You’re right.” Quentin said sheepishly. “But what about you? I was thinking-”

“Nope.” Julia grabbed the Ravenclaw robes. “We’re not going to spend an hour analyzing my personality traits. Knowledge student, Ravenclaw, same thing.” She couldn’t resist teasing him. 

On the inside, Quentin’s brain was screaming in nerd rage about how simplistic that thinking was, but he knew when Julia was fucking with him and he wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction. 

“Fine. Where to next?” 

“Ollivander's of course.” 

After waiting in line for twenty minutes, Quentin and Julia crammed themselves into the small room waiting for the demonstration to begin. They could have just gone straight into the shop, but Quentin insisted on experiencing everything. Quentin nudged himself forward as Mr. Ollivander asked for a volunteer to select a wand, but then clapped as a small boy was selected. The chosen boy’s eyes widen in wonder as he waved his wand, turning the lights on and off. Quentin couldn’t help but smile, remembering when he had that unadulterated love for magic. 

With the presentation over, Julia and Quentin headed into Ollivander’s to get their wands. The small space was filled floor to ceiling with different colored wand boxes, deliberately stacked to look haphazard. Each color of the box held a different wand that represented special attributes. They took their time reading the descriptions of each type, finding the one that spoke to them.

Quentin posed with his new wand outside of Ollivander’s while Julia took pictures. He stopped abruptly as a thought occurred to him. “You can never show these to Eliot and Margo.” 

“They’d banish you to Loria.” 

Some kids come running out of the shop, wands in hand. They reach the wingardium leviosa spell casting stop and try to make the object move. After several attempts, one of them is successful, eliciting excited shrieks from their friends. Swept up in the excitement, they start trying to make every object around them float. Julia watched them and turned to Quentin with a grin. “I have an idea.” Julia focused her attention on the empty cup one of the kids was shouting wingardium leviosa at. The cup began to lift off the ground, barely noticeable except to the little girl who believed she was using magic. The girl squealed with delight. A few seconds later and Julia had the cup 3 inches from the ground before letting it go. The little girl sighed in frustration, trying to get the cup back in the air. 

Julia nudged Quentin. “Your turn.” 

“We shouldn’t be doing this.” 

“I am a god. You will do my bidding.” Julia said in her best Morgan Freeman impersonation. It was terrible and did nothing to persuade Quentin. “Come on, you saw how happy that little girl was. Imagine if something like that happened to you as a kid.” A moment like that would have made Quentin’s year. Hell, it would have made his childhood. He looked out at the kids and decided on the boy that had been chosen in the demonstration. The boy was trying to put out the lights in one of the lamps like he had done before. Quentin cast carefully, he had to be more cautious than Julia since he had to do magic with his hands. It only lasted a moment, but got Quentin got the light to turn off and back on again. The boy nearly fell over he was so excited. 

Later that night, Quentin and Julia watched the light show over Hogwarts castle, enjoying their third?fourth?fifth? glasses of butterbeer. Quentin turned to Julia with a question on his lips.

“Do you think... we found Fillory. Is it possible?” He gestured towards Hogwarts. 

“I don’t think so Q.” 

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Quentin looked down at his feet, disappointed in the answer he already knew.

Julia was not about to let the day end like this. “It’s not impossible. If we can’t find it I can always build a new world.” 

“You, what?” Quentin sat up, meeting Julia’s eyes with an excitement she hadn’t seen in months.

“Yeah, Iris taught me.” Julia shrugged. “It might take a few tries, but how hard can it be? If Ember can do it, so can I.” 

“You did log a lot of hours on The Sims that summer you broke your leg.” Quentin’s eyes dulled thinking that Julia was just fucking with him again. “I’m sure the skills will translate.” 

Julia smacked Quentin in the chest with the back of her hand. “I’m being serious.” 

“You could really do it? A new world?” Quentin was practically salivating at the idea and this sent alarm bells off in Julia’s head. And she was kicking herself for allowing it to happen. She knew better than to try and cure him with escapism. Something was wrong in this world and this time she wouldn’t let him run from it. 

“I could,” She took a deep breath to summon the words, “Or you could tell me what you’re running from?” 

When Quentin met her eyes again everything clicked into place. This wasn’t about the quest being over or Quentin not being the chosen one. She knew that look from high school, but had never seen it so intense. Lovesick Quentin was not a Quentin she had dealt with successfully. Now that she wasn’t the object of his affection maybe she could change that. 

Julia reached out for Quentin’s hand, “Or who?” She returned his gaze with a knowing look. 

Immediately, Quentin broke eye contact and pulled away. “I don’t-” he started before realizing there was no end to that sentence. Because he did. He loved Eliot, but Eliot didn’t love him back. 

“Hey,” Julia brushed the hair from Quentin’s face. “Talk to him. You can’t give up that easily.” 

“Yeah, okay.” Quentin shrugged her off. 

Julia stuck her pinky out at Quentin. “Promise me.” 

Quentin laughed, turning away from Julia. “Jules, seriously?” 

Unfazed, Julia stuck her hand out even closer until she was almost touching Quentin’s face. Quentin knew she wouldn’t move until he agreed. It’s been her go-to move since the third grade, that time she made him promise to stay friends forever. Some things never change and for that he was grateful. With a surrendering sigh, Quentin linked pinky’s with Julia and promised to talk to Eliot again. Things were different now. This time he couldn’t use being high on emotions as an excuse and the fate of the world no longer hangs in the balance. Maybe, this time he could get the truth. 

Julia smiled, satisfied that she was still able to coerce Quentin into making good choices. “Come on, we’re missing the show.” She twisted back around to watch the light show, leaning her head against Quentin’s shoulders. And for the first time in months, Quentin looked forward to tomorrow.


End file.
